Shaikh al-Hadith Nematullah Tawhidi was a charismatic Iranian Sunni scholar from the Sistan and Baluchestan Province in south-east Iran. A teacher of one of the Sunni institutes in Zahedan city. He was known for his sharp mind and tongue and for his bravery as he openly defended Sunni beliefs without any comprise despite all the pressure from the Iranian regime and the Shia clergy. He also openly refuted Shia allegations (in defence of Sahaba, the mother of the believers ‘Aisha etc.) against Ahl al-Sunnah and warned against the veneration of saints and graves that are so common in Iran and were actively propagated by the regime and the Mullahs of Qom in Sunni regions of Iran. He surely lived up to his name, a man of monotheism, who lived by it and died upon it.

He, along with a group of other outspoken Iranian Sunni scholars died in a suspicious bus crash in year 1427H / 2006. His family members and witnesses suspect the Iranian regime (it got rid of many critics, especially Sunni scholars, in such staged ‘accidents’). He was only 38 years young.

Whether or not an ethnic Persian exists in the world is a topic where one will hear many opinions and arguments. Some (often Iranian nationalists) argue that the Persian-speakers of Iran are not an ethnic group but rather a lingual group (like most Arab speakers in the Arab world who although are culturally and linguistically Arab, yet very few can claim to be of pure Arab origin, although undoubtly many do have Arab ancestry).

The 5th of March (1996/1416) marks the day when Shaykh Abdul-Malik Mollazadeh (Iranian Baloch Sunni scholar) was assassinated by Iranian intelligence agents.

The Shaykh was the son of the great scholar Shaykh Abdul-Aziz Mollazadeh (brother of Shaykh Dr. Abdul-Rahim Mollazadeh, known in the Arab world as Shaykh Abu Muntasir Al-Balushi) who was the most influential Sunni authority in Iran during the time of the Shah and beginning of the Khomeinist revolution.

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s family was originally from Basra, Iraq, and belonged to the Arab Banu Shayban tribe. His father was an officer in the Abbasid army in (inhabited by Persians to this day) Khorasan and later settled with his family in Baghdad, where Ahmad was born in 780 CE. Ibn Hanbal had two wives and several children, including an older son, who later became a judge in Sunni (Pre-Safavid) Isfahan. What pretty much unknown, even to many students of knowledge, is that Imam Ahmad could speak fluently Persian!

The Samanid dynasty (Persian: سامانیان, Sāmāniyān), also known as the Samanid Empire (819–999). It was the first native Persian empire after Arabs ruled Persia for around 300 years. This first ever Persian empire after the Muslim conquest by Caliph ‘Omar Ibn Al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) was not just Muslim but Sunni to the core. The Samanids ruled in Khorassan and Transoxiana. During the era of the Abbasids they ruled as Amirs of Khorasan, appointed by the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad. The Samanids were of Persian dehqan origin with roots stemming from Balkh (to this day a majority Persian-Tajik area in Afghanistan) in present-day northern Afghanistan.They claimed descent from the House of Mihran, high nobility of the Sassanian and Parthian (ancient Khorassan) empires conquered by the Muslims.

Abū Ḥamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm aka Attar Al-Nishaburi* (Nishabur lies in current day Iran, in the Khorasan province where ethnic Persian Khorassani Sunnis still represent a large minority, even in Mashad city) on one of the accusations of the Shia against the two noble Shaykhs (Abu Bakr and Omar):

Tabaristan, also known as Tapuria, was the name of the former historic region in the southern coasts of Caspian Sea roughly in the location of the northern and southern slopes of Elburz range in Iran. The region roughly corresponded to the modern Iranian provinces of Mazandaran, Gilan, Golestan, northern Semnan, and a little part of Turkmenistan.

Our master Abdullah Ibn ‘Abbas had many famous students, among them many non-Arabs such as the leader of the Salaf, Sa’id Ibn Jubayr (of Habashi/Ethiopian origin), ‘Ikramah (Berber, North African origin) and ‘Ataa Ibn Abi Rabah (of Nubian/Sudani origin) and many others.

Imam Abu Sulayman Dawud b. ‘Ali b. Khalaf al-Asbahani (Isfahani) al-Kufi (815–883/4 CE, 199-269/270 AH) was a scholar of Islamic law (formely a Shafi’i) during the Islamic Golden Age. He is widely regarded as the founder of the Zahiri school of thought.

Imam al-Sam’ani mentions that the family of Dawud b. ‘Ali belonged to Kashan, a small town in the neighbour­hood of Isfahan (a large province). His father was a secretary (katib) to `Abd Allah ibn Khalid, judge of Isfahan, in the days of the Caliph al‑Mamun. According to al-Dhahabi, Dawud was a mawla (client/freedman) of of ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi bi-‘llah (born in Iraq and died in what is known today as Khuzestan/Ahwaz). Dawud himself a was born in Kufah (hence al-Kufi) in 202/817.

The Abdullah ibn Mas’ud Hifdh Al-Qur’an school in Iran, Parsian county (formely known as Gavbandieh) of Hormozgan, south Iran. Wheverer you find Ahlus-Sunnah, you’ll find Ahl Al-Qur’an.

Parsian county is one of the many remaining ethnic Persian Sunni (Shafi’fi) pockets in the south of Iran which also has a minority Iranian Arab (Sunni Shafi’i) population, living in harmony (with intermarriages being very common among southern Persian Sunnis and Arabs).

If there are any Iranian Sunni people more unknown (even to Iranians) than the Persian Sunni-Shafi’is (Lari/Khodmooni) of south Iran, then it is the Persian Sunni-Hanafi people of the Iranian Khorasan province. Perhaps, this is due to the widely-held (erroneous) belief that Iranian Sunnis are from ethnic groups other than the Persian one.

His full Name was Abu al-Khayr Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Yusuf al-Jazari (1350 CE/751 AH – 1429 CE/833 AH) was a distinguished and prolific scholar in the field of the Qira’at of the Qur’an, whom al-Suyuti regarded as the “ultimate authority on these matters”.

Kerman province is home to ethnic Persians, the absolute majority of them have been forced to Shi’ism during Safavid onslaught in 16th century. Today, a minority (mainly Baloch tribes) is Sunni (Hanafi), mainly in the south of the province.

Major Muslim-Sunni authorities and Imams in Fiqh, Aqidah, Hadith, Tafsir, Arabic (grammar, poetry etc.) uses to emerge from the famous Kerman region of the Persian lands.

Shaikh Mohsen Mo’tamad passed away today (16/02/2018) on Jumu’ah. He was one of the most famous Da’wah carriers (who also studied Mathematical Physics) in the south of Iran (Hormozgan) and amir (head) of the Tablighi Jama’at in the Hormozgan province (yes, they do operate in Iran, only in predominantly Sunni regions and even there they are often faced with harassment by the regime).

May Allah have mercy upon him and forgive his sins and make Jannah Al-Firdaws Al-A’laa his eternal home.

His full name was Abul-Qasim Hussein ibn Muhammad Al-Raghib Al-Isfahani (often written as Asbahani), also known as Ibn Al-Mufaddal. He was of Persian descent, born in Isfahan (modern day Iran). He lived in around 502 AH (eleventh-century A.D.) and was a scholar of Qur’anic exegesis and the Arabic language.

One of the most senior Sunni scholars of Iran has passed away. He was Sheikh Al-Hadith Mohammad Yusuf Husseinpour from Sarbaz city. Unlike the likes of Khomeini (whose already extravagant mausoleum has been further renewed to what looks now like a Zoroastrian-Sassanian palace) and other Shia scholars and saints, no extravagant grave (let alone shrine or mausoleum) will be built for him, he will be buried in a simple and modest fashion as required by the shari’ah and as it is common among Sunni Iranians.

Ramadhan 1438 / 2017 in Birjand city (southern Khorasan province of Iran) which has a large Sunni population of ethnic Persian Sunnis (Hanafi). The Shalwar Qamis is their traditional clothing just as it is the traditional clothing of Persian/Tajik Sunnis of Afghanistan. Shias in Iran are one of the few nations in the Islamic world that are devoid of any traditional Islamic clothing (the Shia clergy is wears clerical clothing which is for them only, like in a Hindu caste system or the Church where priests only wear specific attire).

In the capital of Iran, Tehran, Sikhs run an actual proper temple, Zorastrians have …

…fire temples and private schools. Jews literally own and run their private hospital (!) (besides their numerous owned Synagogues) and of course Christians own massive churches, visible ones, crosses and other symbols of polytheistism covering the skyline of the city.

Disclaimer: Sonsofsunnah is an independant online platform that does not endorse or represent any group. The information contained in this blog and this article in particular is for general information purposes only. Sources: Mainly Wikipedia and other open sources.

Harakat Ansar Iran

Harakat Ansar Iran (Persian: حرکت انصار ایران‎‎; Movement of the Partisans of Iran)was a Sunni militant organization active in 2012–2013 in the Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency and a designated terrorist organization by Iran. It was one of two militant groups, along with its ally Jaish ul-Adl, which split from Jundallah after the arrest of its leader in 2010.

The Major Powers in the west favoured the Safavids because they were an obstacle to the Islamic expansion of the Sunni Ottomans i.e. they (Shia Safavids) were one of the major causes why the Muslims couldn’t conquer Europe. Ferdinand, the ambassador to the Austrian King remarked:

“Had it not been for the (Shi’ite) Safavids in Persia, we would have been reading the Qur’an this day like the Algerians”

Meaning that his nation would have been conquered by the Ottoman Muslims. It was the Safavid state that kept the Ottoman state busy with fighting the Safavids, instead of the crusaders. The Safavids had never beaten their western neighbours in a straight fight. Hence Safavid Persia and Europe formed an alliance against the Sunni Ottomans. A dramatic example of this is the role of the English engineer/adventurers, known as the Sherley brothers who helped Shah Abbas create an indigenous musket and cannon industry to fight the formidable Ottomans. Shah Abbas’ personal bodyguard were recruited from the Armenians and the Georgians of the Caucasus. How true is the famous statement of Shaykh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah who more than two centories before the emergence of the Safavid dynasty said:

“The Rafidis are the donkeys of the Jews, they ride them for every fitnah”
[Ibn Taymiyyah, Minhaaj-us-Sunnah 1/20-21]